New agriculture minister toes the line on glyphosate

France’s newly appointed agriculture minister Didier Guillaume has promised to implement president Emmanuel Macron’s controversial promise to ban the herbicide glyphosate by 2020.

Guillaume replaced Stéphane Travert as agriculture minister in a reshuffle on 16 October. In an interview on the radio station RTL, making his first public statements since his appointment, Guillaume said: “I will tell you now, that during this presidential term, we will see the end of glyphosate.”

However, at one point during the interview, Guillaume expressed doubts over whether pesticides have any negative effects on human health. He said: “It’s up to scientists to show evidence as to whether there are any consequences of pesticide use or not.”